Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed assembly of its WorldView-3, the fourth remote-sensing satellite it has built for DigitalGlobe, scheduled to launch this summer from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The WorldView-3 spacecraft is billed by Ball Aerospace as the first multi-payload, super-spectral high resolution commercial satellite for Earth observations and "advanced geospatial solutions."

Ball, in addition to the satellite bus, will provide an atmospheric instrument that it calls CAVIS -— Cloud, Aerosol, Water Vapor, Ice, Snow.

CAVIS, integrated with the spacecraft, will monitor the atmosphere and provide correction data to enhance WorldView-3's imagery when it documents Earth features through dust, haze or other things that might impair visibility.

DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont but moving to Westminster next year, claims to own and operate one of the most agile and sophisticated collections of high-resolution commercial Earth imaging satellites in the world, capable of collecting more than 1 billion square kilometers of high-quality imagery every year.

WorldView-3 is described by Ball Aerospace as building on WorldView-2 and WorldView-1 technology by enhancing the satellite's control moment gyroscopes, which reorient a satellite over a targeted area in 4-to-5 seconds, compared to the 30-to-45 seconds required for traditional reaction wheels.

WorldView-3 utilizes the Ball Configurable Platform BCP 5000 spacecraft, which is designed to handle the next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads, and is currently meeting or exceeding all its performance specifications on the WorldView-2 satellite.

Companies 'have grown up together'

For Jeff Dierks, Ball Aerospace program manager for WorldView-3 and its predecessor, WorldView-2, the next step in its partnership with DigitalGlobe only further cements what has been a rich relationship since the early 1990s.

"We have grown up together with them," said Dierks, noting that there has been cross-pollination in staff between the two companies since not long after DigitalGlobe was founded in 1992 as the WorldView Imaging Corporation.

"What's exciting is watching the business grow over the years," Dierks said. "DigitalGlobe has become quite a successful company, and is a remarkably different company than when they first started both in size and success."

And it has been fruitful as well for Ball Aerospace, which Dierks said was paid "a little over $200 million" for its design and build of the WorldView-3 spacecraft and CAVIS instrumentation.

Kumar Navulur, director of research and development for DigitalGlobe, expressed excitement about the advanced imaging capabilities that WorldView-3 will facilitate.

"There are several advantages with the WorldView-3, compared to our previous satellites," Navulur said. "The first one is the satellite will capture pictures at 1 foot, or 30 centimeters resolution," as opposed to the 50-centimeter resolution afforded by its precursors.

"The only caveat is that today, DigitalGlobe can only sell 50-centimeter to commercial customers. We have asked for a relaxation from the government, but at this point we don't know when we will be able to get it. In the worldwide market, 1-foot images are the sweet spot."

And, in addition to recording data in the visible and near-infrared parts of the solar spectrum, Navulur said, WorldView-3 also will be looking into the shortwave infrared spectrum, "where there is a lot more information."

Manu uses of imaging data

Navulur cited examples of the data that such imaging will yield, and its applications. For agricultural clients, it will now be possible to look at things such as crop inventory and the moisture content of soil.

Forestry clients will be able to conduct inventories that differentiate not only between coniferous and deciduous trees, but between trees species.

Wildfire managers will be able to detect hotspots, which could have life-saving implications if firefighters can be steered away from lethal pockets.

And miners and geologists will be afforded a much better picture of the presence of mineral deposits, while those in the oil and gas industry will realize a similar benefit, Navulur said.

WordView-3 will be moved to its California launch site about two months before its summer liftoff, and integrated with its Atlas V rocket —- manufactured by United Launch Alliance, another Colorado company — and readied for delivery into its orbit altitude of 617 kilometers.

It should start collecting data about 45 to 90 days after launch, Navulur said.

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